iRadar: 8 Creative Ideas To Recycle Your Mobile Phone Without Throwing It Out

8 Creative Ideas To Recycle Your Mobile Phone Without Throwing It Out:

Recycle mobile phones. I wish that should be the catchphrase for all of us to live by. While researching this article, I came across quite a few official mobile industry websites of consumer rich countries dedicated to recycling old mobile phones. So, the message is being sent out. But on the ground, is it finding its place anywhere other than the dumpster? I hope so.
Recycling mobile phones has never been easier. But if you think that there’s some life still left in that old ringer, you could still squeeze a little something out of it before you hand it over to a recycling program. You go creative and recycle your mobile phone and give it a second life. Wrack your brains. Prick the creativity inside you, and take inspiration from these eight creative ideas.

An Old Mobile Phone & An Objet D’Art

You and I know that it would take something to be as creative as the following examples listed to turn an old mobile phone into an art object. But as long as it can be done, maybe the more arty among us can think up something. First, let’s say wow to Rob Petit who took discarded old phones and recycled them into flowers, paintings, murals and more. His inspiration was to use cell phone art to highlight the proliferation and waste of cell phones. The good thing is that he is not the only one.
Look at Joe McKay who combines disused or damaged cellphones and turns them into tech objects or interesting sculptures. If you do a Google Search, you will get many more.

Take An Old Cellphone To An Adventure

Let’s look at a few ideas we common folk can do. Going on an adventure trip with a new well-specced smartphone (the latest iPhone perhaps) could result in severe grief if you dunk it into the water or make it meet a mishap. Why not swap your SIM card and take along your old phone instead. A SIM is easily replaceable; a new object of desire is not.

Repurpose An Old Phone Into An Emergency-Only Device

Apart from recycling a mobile phone into a paperweight, this is the most common practical advice I came across. You can keep your old mobile phone in the dashboard and use it for an emergency call. As long as the battery holds, you can call an emergency number like 911 from a phone that does not have a SIM card. This eHow article also says that it’s a Federal law that allows it to be so.

Use An Old Phone As A Teaching Aid For Your Kids

Kids of today are born into a digital world. I personally think kids should be encouraged to see cellphones as more than a texting device. A simple use for kids could be use an old cameraphone to collect pictures of flowers and leaves, rocks, or even insects and study them later (look at Project Noah and this WSJ article). Kids can use Google Goggles to identify artwork and landmarks among other things. Mobile podcasting could be an alternative to homework and far more interesting. If the old mobile phone is a smartphone, then apps are available in plenty that can help to recycle the mobile phone into a carry-along study tool.

Use An Old Phone As A Webcam Or Remote Camera

An old phone with a camera can easily be converted into a webcam with the right kind of app for that make and model. We have readers asking us the very same question in our Answers section. Here are two we managed to answer:

The Mobiola Web Cam solution is available for iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile or Symbian (Nokia only) smartphones but it is not free.

If you have an iPhone, you can go for iWebCamera ($4.99) and use it to video chat over Skype or anything else.

iCam – a webcam video streaming iPhone app ($4.99) can be set up on a discarded iPhone (rare, but people do discard iPhones too!) and used as a remote surveillance camera.

Android users could look into IP Webcam, SmartCam, and DroidCam as possible alternate webcam solutions. All are free and you can follow the individual instructions to set them up. I haven’t tried them all, so do send in your comments on their user-friendliness.

Heard About The Mobile Mouse?

You can use your old Android smartphone and even an iPhone as a mobile mouse, wireless remote, keyboard or trackpad. Google Play has Remote Mouse (free), Android Mouse and Keyboard (free), and Mobile Mouse (paid). Mobile Mouse is also available for the iPhone ($1.99). An app like HippoRemote LITE (free) can turn your iPhone into a Wi-Fi keyboard and trackpad – perfect for presentations. Need another iPhone app as a wireless keyboard and trackpad – try Touch Mouse (free).

Repurpose An Old Cellphone Into A Remote Start For Your Car

A bit of circuitry knowhow and Dave Hacks could help you turn that old cellphone (with a few calling minutes) into a cheap remote start for your car. The tutorial is in three parts. There are quite a few mobile hacks for cars, but this one is worth a look because the tutorial is detailed and you start off with a cheap $10 cellphone. All the parts required for the assembly cost the project $71.03.

Learn Jailbreaking Or Rooting

Jailbreaking an iPhone or rooting an Android phone isn’t only for the techies. There are a lot of benefits that could convince you to learn the ‘science’ behind hacking your phone. You wouldn’t risk trying it on a new phone as a new hand in the phone hacking business, so why not put up the old smartphone on the altar. There are several benefits to rooting or jailbreaking. Android users can use custom ROMs (How To Install A Custom ROM On Your Android) to give their old mobiles a facelift. iPhone users can play with the whole gallery of Cydia apps on a jailbroken iPhone. Follow the links included in the text to learn about what all you can do with a hacked phone.
Well, that’s not all. We have covered a few more ideas before –

Then there are the millions of apps on Google Play and iTunes that can give old smartphones a lease of life. I personally use my old phone as a FM radio player in the bathroom. What’s your creative idea to recycle your mobile phone without throwing it out or handing it down to someone else? Pitch it in the comments.
Image Credits: Emergency Number 911 via Shutterstock; Cellular splashing into water via Shutterstock, Cellphone With Recycle Sign by tungphoto